Sidney
Felsen founded Gemini G.E.L. (Graphics Editions Limited)
in Los
Angeles in 1966 and soon after began to photograph the artists
who came to
work in what has become America's premier graphics studio. The
portraits in
the book are testament not only to Felsen's talents as a photographer,
but
to the vitality of the relationships he developed with his subjects
in the
environment of dynamic collaboration that he created at Gemini.
The
spirit of Gemini is best captured by the word "collaboration."
It's
about artists and printers working hand in hand to create
works of art. This
same spirit prevails when I take photos. There's a trust extended
by the
artists, allowing me to share so many special moments with
them.
-Sidney Felsen
Artists
from Bruce Nauman and architect Frank Gehry (who also designed
the
Gemini Studios in 1979) to the American masters Robert Rauschenberg,
Jasper
Johns, and Roy Lichtenstein became subjects for Felsen's camera
when they
were at work and at play in the studio. David Hockney, Ellsworth
Kelly,
Claes Oldenburg, Elizabeth Murray, Vija Celmins, and a host
of other artists
show their best sides in this collection of portraits that,
taken together,
act as a portrait of Felsen and the world he created at Gemini.
The
Artist Observed: Photographs by Sidney B. Felsen
documents nearly forty
years of artists working in the most innovative and experimental
printmaking
environment in the country. From its earliest days, a spirit
of adventure
has predominated at Gemini, and the one hundred and twenty
photographs that
make up this book capture that that spirit in style. The perfect
complement
to the legacy of prints produced at Gemini over the years,
many of the
photographs in The Artist Observed were exhibited in
Best Impressions: 35
Years of Prints and Sculpture from Gemini G.E.L. at the
National Gallery of
Art in 2001-2002.
The
Artist Observed: Photographs by Sidney B. Felsen, ISBN
0-944092-94-2, is
published by Twin Palms Publishers Twelve Trees Press and
priced at $60.
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